LANGLEY — All week long here at the 55th B.C. junior boys basketball championships, the St. Patricks Celtics proved that when it comes to playing fast, they have no peers in this province.
In Tuesday night’s championship game, however, played before an overflow sell-out LEC South court crowd against North Vancouver’s Argyle Pipers, a funny thing happened as the fourth quarter clock continued to tick down.
In the midst of the most frenetic, high-tempo night of their lives… for a span of just under four minutes, St. Patrick’s came together in such perfect unison that time seemed to stand still.
Over that span, the Celtics hit five three-pointers, including three from guard Dion Gonzales to gain the precious seperation they would need to ultimately defeat the Pipers 83-73 and annex their second provincial title in the past five B.C. tournaments.
St. Pat’s finished 15-of-33 from beyond the three-point arc, impressive enough own, but even more so in a shorter 32-minute junior game.
When asked after the game when the contest got away from his team, classy Pipers coach Jamie Oei begged to differ.
“It never got away from us,” he said. “I’ve just never seen a team shoot that way at this age level. Fifteen threes I think they hit? I thought we played good defence. We were in the right spots and they hit them in our face.
“I was laughing at some of them they were such amazing shots. Those guys played amazing. So the better team today won.”
Oei’s comments are hard to dispute.
The game was tied 37-37 at the half and 55-55 after three quarters.
And before St. Pat’s Keanne Tabag got the game-defining run underway with 5:54 remaining by bagging a three pointer, the Celtics were clinging to a 60-59 lead.
“I told the guys at halftime ‘We’re tied, we’ve played average and they have hit every shot, and we’re still in good shape, that eventually they are going to start missing… but they didn’t.”
Tabang’s three was followed by a steal and subsequent coast-to-coast layin by Celtics’ guard Dhyne Cotin, who while after hitting three triples in the first half, settled into a rim-attack force, scoring a game-high 36 points and being named tournament MVP.
“This is what we have been working for all season,” admitted Gonzalez after the game. “It’s just a surreal performance,”
Gonzales would go on to rip three straight triples, the second of those which was perhaps the most surreal hoop of the game.
From well out behind the arc, the slight, 5-foot-9 Grade guard let fly a high-arcing side-step attempt that banked in off glass with 4:28 left and put his team on top 71-64.
He shot a calm, cool 12-for-15 over the team’s five B.C. tourney games. In Tuesday’s win he five assists and three steals.
Jericho Labrador, who scored 28 points in his team’s semifinal win on Monday, was plagued by foul problems all game, but hit a triple as part of the parade as the Celtics built a 77-70 lead with 2:04 remaining. He had seven points and six assists in the final.
Afterwards, St. Pat’s head coach John Boateng was asked to describe the way his team delivered from distance in front of such a high-stakes game.
“I have never seen our team shoot the ball like that, I mean God was with us tonight. You know things are going your way when you hit a side-step banked three-pointer from as far out as we did… and that was Dion Gonzales.
“There was 10 seconds (on the shot clock), I went to my side-step and it was God’s work from there,” said Gonzalez. “Tonight, we trusted each other. All of our ball movement got each other going. Everyone was into the game and it was a team effort.”
Labrador reflected back on the heartbreak of a year ago when the Celtics advanced all the way to the final but lost to Terry Fox in the title tilt.
“Last year we lost and we spent this whole offseason just working,” he said. “We spent all almost every second of our summer working and it’s amazing knowing that it paid off.”
Cotin, the 5-foot-10 Grade 10 guard, was a deserving MVP.
In the second half, while Gonzalez was knocking down threes, Cotin was shifting his focus to the floor game, giving the Celts a variance in their offence by notching seven regulation buckets and shooting 9-of-10 from the free throw line over the final two quarters.
In addition to his 36 points, he had nine steals and eight rebounds.
“It’s a dream, this is a dream,” said Cotin as the championship net was being clipped, relating the fact that he had found a new basketball home after he and his family moved here from the Philippines just this past May.
Interestingly enough, each team sunk 13 baskets in the second half, but the exchange rate on threes vs. twos, and nine additional free throw attempts ultimately made the difference.
“You think that a three is just a three, but they have shown a multitude of different threes against 6-5 defenders closing out on them,” said TFSETV analyst Cheryl Jean-Paul of the fact that the Celtics got the job done against a much taller and longer team than themselves. “The focus and the skill they have as shooters has been on display tonight.”
Argyle’s Nathan Szpak led the Pipers with 20 points, while Ilia Maydan had 17 and Jayden Szpak 16. Sahai Sangha hit four of the team’s six treys on the night and finished with 12 points.
“As they say you learn a lot more from a loss than a win,” Oei said. “This is why we’re here. This is why we coach kids. This is why we spend all these hours with them… to teach them about life, sports, sportsmanship. We got a little tight today because it was such a close game, such an amazing atmosphere. (St Pat’s) just made more plays going down the stretch than we did. That’s all there is to it. I told my players I loved them before the game, and I am going to tell them again we get into the room.”
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